


brothers

by demonsLOver



Category: One Piece
Genre: All or Nothing, Angst, Dark Sabo, Dark Thoughts, Gen, Nakamaship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:22:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23552992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonsLOver/pseuds/demonsLOver
Summary: He glowed and laughed, not as the same as before but lighter, living. As much as this man made their captain happy, they worried. The way he clutched his little brother just spelled death and desperation.The Straw Hat crew knows. Sabo is not okay.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy & Sabo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 186





	brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Just a drabble. Nakamaship. Hints of Dark!Sabo because that boy isn't completely sane and I love it. Quick note, a mention of suicide but no suicide attempts or death. Not gonna lie, this gets gloomy.

Giggles ranged loud throughout the deck. Heartwarming, cheerful, and magnetic. 

Luffy was between his brother's legs, his back against the older brother's chest. The blonde holding a journal with one hand, telling stories of his adventures to an eager listener. Those on deck grinned at the carefree laughter the revolutionary enticed from their captain. It was such a lovely sound to hear.

Usopp and Chopper shared a smile filled with relief. Together they tried, endlessly, to make Luffy's laughter brighter,  _ alive.  _ It was as loud as it always was but it wasn't completely full of life, if anything at times it sounded forced. Sure Luffy played and fooled around as usual but sometimes —hours that would bleed to the next day— he would stay at his special seat in hollow silence. At those moments, nothing could lure the scarred man to move. 

So they would wait. 

Usopp with new ideas, games, stories, anything that could capture his beloved friend and captain's mind for hours to pull him from a place that was too dark for someone with such a golden heart. Chopper played along to Usopp's plans but that didn't stop him from making his own. He wished he could see those scars that plagued his captain's mind but this wasn't something he could heal, no matter how desperately he wanted to. So he played doctor, making dots on Luffy's skin with a marker, teaching Luffy the stuff he used, letting him taste herbs to guess the correct one, anything to stop the way Luffy clutched his chest as if breathing was too hard to keep doing as trauma continued to choke his dearest friend. 

They knew. They could see that Ace's death deeply damaged the second in command of the revolutionary army. Despite not being brothers by blood, Ace and Luffy looked alike to pull it off, a flicker of a dead man's face sometimes appeared on the living one. Sabo would react quietly and stand a little closer to the rubber man, calming his own imagination of what could have been, he could have lost them both. 

They had that same fright when they didn't know if Luffy even survived until he went back to Marineford. As much and hard they try, they could never fully protect their captain. And Luffy wouldn't allow it, but it seemed they weren't the only ones who noticed the blonde brother's need of reassurance. Their captain indulged his brother so easily. 

That fear and those thoughts teetered the older man's sanity. The ideas to protect what made the world beautiful to live in and see was reaching a dangerous degree. The way he pulled Luffy away when he sat on the rail to fish, when he stretched a bit too far that looked like he was gonna go overboard, when he ate quickly and choked on his food; the blonde was silently terrified. Sabo was deathly afraid of any possibility that loomed for his baby brother. 

They worried how far he would go. The answer, unexpected, still stricken them for weeks after. 

"Once… I had a dream I buried Luffy next to him." They didn't need the name to know who. 

Shivers and chills struck their hearts at the mere idea of the D. Brothers joined together in death. 

Silence, Sabo continued. "He was so bloody. I couldn't stand it!" The touch of hysteria was loud with grief. The way deadly hands curled into fists said desperation and lonely ache would end this man. 

"So I killed myself at their grave." Hints of lunacy reached the fire man's eyes.

If Luffy died —not that they would ever let their captain go through a death like his older brother— Sabo would be fast to follow. Instability led to desperation and survival was pointing to death. Luffy was the only thing keeping his brother alive. 

Being separated by the veil of death days or years 

Sabo was ready to throw away the organization where he drew and gathered his strength throughout years to protect the world  _ his bright world  _ in his embrace. If the world should somehow crumble _ bigger the star shorter the life but bigger the impact and death  _ Sabo would cave into crumbling earth. Brothers made by bonds that blood could never create would meet again. The aftermath would be destructive, nothing short of chaos in those final hours. 

It scared them. How much they saw themselves in this one man and the greatest fear he carried. Sabo was ready to do the thinkable, it was clear he has come to terms of how he would —and whom— live by. Living and breathing with the person none of them could imagine without, Sabo would do it without hesitation. But it left a question, and the glances they shared with each other asked it loudly. 

_ What would  _ we  _ do?  _

It worried them how desperate the elder brother became. They were at that point during the beginning of those years but never this extreme. They realized, once informed, that two years is nothing compared to twelve. That clinging desperation became clear as the reason for why death became an option. Sabo lived years  _ years  _ without an ounce of that sunny planet, only seeing rays of distant lights that took years to reach him. He lived in darkness and he didn't know why, he finally got the light of his life in his arms safe and sound and he will not let go. Not even to death. Sabo's world got darker two years ago, he refused to live without sunlight. 

It really was life or death. 

Luffy was the center for all of them, the heart of their crew. 

The brothers laid asleep, legs intertwined with soft snores. Luffy could live without his brothers, then it meant he may be able to live without them. It was a terrifying close call that they couldn't live without him, Marineford proved it. 

_ Hard eyes and firm nods gave the answer.  _

Luffy, the heart. Them, the rest. They refused to live without it beating. They agreed to the brother's decision, Ace's and Sabo's, of the world to live in. It was desperation and death in the end. Desperation to live, succeed, and cheer all for one with him, living and fighting. Or death, to those that dare try to kill him and or death as one for all. 

Brothers; one passed and one hardened will choose death over darkness. They understood and felt calm at their decision, and gathered around the sleeping duo, to join them in rest, in a silent agreement. 

The Straw Hats no longer worried.


End file.
